Vicissitude
by TheRoyalZealot
Summary: Lost in a strange world with no where to go. Haunted by the reminiscence of my past. My only hope in redemption is in a handful of children who have no idea about the concept of war. Left with barely anything to survive, I must learn from various inhabitants of this planet to live. And perhaps teach them about my own ways. There is no other way that I can achieve this. Unfortunate.
1. The Way to Redemption

"If you run, we'll find you." The Blue AI had said.

My reply: "No… you won't."

As I cloaked myself with the Active Camouflage module, I walked away from the sim troopers wondering if they would ever actually find me again. If they did find me, I would be a dead man with no hope of ever redeeming myself. Redemption. I have to redeem myself. No amount of resistance was going to stop me from righting all the wrongs I had committed. Millions of innocent lives were taken away, all because of me, and as I said to the sim troopers, I couldn't change if I was behind bars. Emotions suddenly rushed to my mind, filling it with feelings I had pushed to the deepest, darkest corners of my mind. The rush was overwhelming, with each thought threatening to break me.

No.

I'm a soldier, and soldiers can't break.

No, I'm not a soldier, I'm a monster.

All the horrible deeds I thought I was doing for money, or for the need to follow orders, or simply to become the ultimate weapon, I only began to realize why I did it. I did it because I refused to reflect on my actions, I refused to believe the truth, that I was the bad guy, and that I had tried to do more harm than good in this world. The last though on my mind was of Agent Washington. He too had done some terrible things in the past, but he managed to redeem himself. He worked with the Meta, he shot one of the sims troopers, and tried to capture their blue AI friend, but even after all of that they helped him out. They gave him different armor and hid him from authorities. Perhaps that was only because he helped them before, and he helped to defeat the Meta and protect them afterwards. Me, I had already given them a bad impression from the start, and continued to do so throughout the war. I stayed by the Chairman's side, only until Felix and I went through the jungle temple's test. It was then when it dawned on me, but only now did I actually react.

Exhausted, bleeding, and drained of any energy, I sat down in a quiet corner of the temple. Out of thin air, the alien AI that controlled the temples appeared in front of me.

"Exactly what do you wish to do, now that you have no use here?" asked the red alien program.

"I am not so sure. All I know is that I don't deserve to exist here anymore."

"Redemption won't be achieved by disappearing forever… Or maybe it can…"

The AI seemed to be thinking, and longer than it usually takes for an AI to think. I was actually starting to get nervous, since I have never seen an AI "think" for so long. What sort of plan could it have for me? Perhaps it was something that would incinerate me, as payback for what I had done to so many of the colonists. It would be very ironic too, if an AI could understand irony. What if it teleported me into a desert and I had to find my way out by myself? That would be an even more unfortunate scenario than incineration. At least incineration is quick. It could probably teleport me somewhere in Armonia, and have me die of radiation. Slow, painful, torturous, it seemed like the perfect idea. Then again, it's an AI. Maybe it doesn't understand irony, or torture, or anger, or emotions. I was hoping it didn't.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked with a nervous tone.

"On this planet, my creators installed a teleportation device capable of teleporting an individual anywhere in the universe, not just on this planet." It replied.

Unfortunate. Not only does a teleporter exist on this planet, it can teleport anyone anywhere in the entire universe. If this thing wanted me dead, it could teleport me at least 600 miles under some forgotten planets ocean, perhaps even an ocean inhabited by killer mutant piranhas. If that AI wanted to kill me, it could definitely know how to do it.

"They also made some devices of particular importance to my plan." The AI suddenly said.

"What sort of devices? Weaponry? Defenses?" I inquired.

"No. A cloning machine and a time machine." The AI replied in its monotone voice.

"What does this have to do with my redemption?"

"The cloning machine makes an exact clone of an individual, including their conscious and their memories. They will be able to remember everything that happened until a certain point. The time machine can only send an individual back to a period of time where they haven't affected the timeline."

"You still haven't answered my question." I impatiently gritted.

"If you were able to clone yourself, then I could make that clone have memories only up to the part where you walk away. Then I can send that clone back in time to when you start walking. Then that clone will most likely have a different outcome on this situation than you. "

That peaked my interest. However, the complications that could occur would be unknown to me, and with that in mind, I asked,

"How do you know that the clone won't do the exact same thing that I did? If it had all the same memories as me, it might do the exact same thing that I did. And what if there are two of me at the same time?"

"Rest easy, as the clone will replace your past self. The different outcome will most definitely occur since the clone will be easily distinguished by my past self. I was programed so I could identify clones and their originals so they could not change the original timeline. If the original timeline were to change drastically, then the outcomes would be severely different and you could possibly die. There is a 78.2% chance that the clone will make a different choice than you with the help of my past self knowing what not to do." The AI said as if this was information everyone on Chorus knew.

I suddenly understood what the AI was trying to do, but wasn't sure if the plan would succeed. However, it was the only way to fix my mistakes, and not interfere with any of the sim troopers. Besides, if the sim troopers needed me, then my past self would be able to do something different while I was somewhere else in the universe.

"The only problem is getting to the devices. The fortunate thing is that they are all in the same general vicinity. The unfortunate thing is that they are 4 miles from our location, and reaching it would take a lot of energy. We could use the teleportation grid within the planet, but then it would take around 7 minutes to finish everything, considering the opposition headed your way." The AI calmly spoke.

As it disappeared, I saw about a dozen of Charon's forces heading towards my direction.

 _Two armed with Sniper Rifles, two with shotguns, two with SAWs, and a heavily armed one with a railgun and a C4 detonator, most likely their captain,_ I thought to myself. _This should be an easy battle._ As they started walking towards me in standard formation, CQC in front, snipers in the back, and the heavy support in the middle, they suddenly stopped. These soldiers, their armor was almost like…

"Hahaha! Well well well boys, look what we have here. If it isn't the traitor Locus. What exactly do yo-" The captain started to say before a flash of light blinded the entire group, as a portal appeared in front of both me and the soldiers. The alien AI suddenly appeared and nodded towards the direction of the portal.

"GO," it yelled, "Before they enter the portal as well!"

Two options, both which seemed very desperate choices: Fight the group in front of me and risk dying, or enter the portal and risk dying. Unfortunate, yet a decision that I would have to quickly make. With the soldiers readjusting their vision, I quickly slipped into the portal. Lost in space and time for a brief moment, I pondered whether or not the portal would lead to somewhere where I could lay low for a while. Instead it led me to a place which was even more beneficial than laying low. As I exited the tunnel of darkness, I quickly checked my surroundings. I was in a circular pit with high walls surrounding it, leave for one staircase that led outside into the surrounding forest. I quickly raised my gun and checked my surroundings, hoping the enemy soldiers hadn't followed me into the portal. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side. The soldiers surrounded the pit, all yelling at me to stop. I would have immediately killed them if it didn't hit me.

It was as if my fear at the jungle temple was real again, save for a different setting.

"Freeze! Don't move!"

"Don't you fucking move!"

"Lower your weapon or we _will_ shoot!"

"Put the weapon down!"

All of the feelings, started rushing back towards me. The anger. The fear. The horror. The sadness. All pressuring me into a blank trance like state staring at the soldiers. It was happening again. All of it. I froze in place, not knowing what to do. Their captain suddenly came into view and started to speak.

"What do we have here men?" he asked.

One of the soldiers with Aviator armor spoke up. "Caught us Locus captain. I think he understands what we're going to do."

"Really?" the captain inquired before continuing to speak, "Then tell us what you think we're going to do."

I replied, "If you think I'm going to go back with you peop-"

"Answer him, motherfucker!" a soldier with warrior armor cut me off.

I turned and asked him, "Do you all really want to die this bad?"

He must have been glaring at me through his visor as he asked menacingly, "You threatening me punk?"

From behind one of the trees a voice yelled out, "Maybe you're just his type, and that's his way of flirting!"

If they could see behind my helmet, they would have seen a look of horror as I inwardly prayed that whatever was about to happen was different from my nightmares. And then he came. A soldier in that looked just like Felix walked up to the left of the captain. Could this get any worse?

"I say we blow his brains out." The Felix look-alike said.

"That's your answer to everything."

Unfortunate. It _could_ get worse. Another soldier walked up to the right of the captain and looked right at me. An exact replica of me, save for the helmet, which was one of the oldest helmets ever worn. A Mark V. He must have been effective in battle to live this long. He could be deadly, but he seemed to be concerned.

"This can't be happening, not now. Not again." I muttered.

"Hey!" The captain suddenly raised his voice and caught my attention.

"You quit eyeballing my men and give me some answers. Are you alone?" he demanded.

I looked up to them and started chuckling. "You're all just reincarnations of a nightmare that has turned into a reality."

The Aviator soldier asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"He's surrounded, and if he activates his sword, he'll be dead before he even gets close. We should bring him in." The Mark V soldier said.

"Bullshit, I think he's stalling! Sir, this feels like a trap." The Felix look-alike retorted back.

I chuckled. _How much of a coincidence could this be?_ I thought before saying, "There is no one here who could possibly help me."

The captain ignored my response and said to the look-alike, "Private, I did not ask for your opinion-"

"LISTEN TO ME!" I shouted, interrupting the captain and causing the soldiers to train their guns on me once more.

"Hey watch it!"

"He's getting hostile!"

The Felix look-alike calmly said to the captain, "Sir, he's wasting our time and we are in no position to take him in as prisoner."

The captain sighed and replied, "Fine." Looking towards both the Mark V soldier and the Felix look-alike he commanded, "You two, move into a quiet spot in the forest and take him out. Quietly."

"Good luck." I said to the two soldiers advancing on me. It wasn't long before the Mark V soldier spoke up.

"Sir, he's not going to do us any harm."

"And I'd like to keep it that way." The captain annoyingly spit out.

The Mark V soldier turned to fully face his superior as he said, "If we could restrain him, we could-"

The captain interrupted, "Son, you listen here!"

I muttered, "Don't make the same mistake I did."

The captain continued reprimanding the Mark V soldier.

"You're a soldier! In this war, you are nothing but a suit of armor and a gun! So when I give you an order you damn well follow it! Do I make myself clear?!"

Those words. Those soul breaking words! I would _not_ hear those words ever again, and I would not allow anybody else to be broken by them ever again. I prepared to die as I yelled, " **NO!** "

But as I took out my sword, the Mark V soldier did something I never did. He hit the captain with the butt of his rifle and shot down the Felix look-alike. With the soldiers surprised with his sudden betrayal, I threw my sword at the Aviator soldier, dropping him to the ground. The Warrior soldier aimed his gun and fired. As I closed my eyes, I waited for the pain to hit. But it never did.

As I opened my eyes, I saw a shield, just like the one Felix had, hovering in front of me, blocking all of the bullets the soldier was shooting. I turned towards where the portal dropped me and saw the alien AI activating some buttons and yelling at me to go. Without hesitation, I rolled to the side and kept my head low as I ran up the stairs. The Mark V soldier tossed me the dead look-alikes SAW which I promptly caught and shot the Warrior soldier in the head with. I ran to the Aviator soldier and took my sword out of his body while putting away my SAW. It was then that I realized that the captain was missing, and before long, I was knocked on the ground by a railgun blast. My shields were down and I was in an open position, with no cover around me. I went to get my sword, but realized that it had flown out of my hands towards the edge of the pit. The captain dropped his railgun, picked me up with both hands and began to strangle me.

"Exactly what made you think _you_ would get out of this alive Locus? Huh? You really thought you would survive?" he said.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Mark V soldier waving his hands and pointed at a pistol close by. I realized what he was going to do and kicked the captain in his nuts. Dropping me, he held his groin for a while, long enough for me to throw the pistol to the Mark V soldier. The captain regained his senses and put his foot on my chest, aiming his C4 detonator at my head.

 _Bang!_

A shot rang out through the air as the captain dropped dead. As he fell, I saw the Mark V soldier standing right behind his dead body, holding the pistol in the air. He beckoned for me to grab as many weapons as I could and threw me my sword, which deactivated in his hand. I caught the hilt and reactivated it, staring at the dead bodies all around me.

"I couldn't do something like that. That would make me a monster," he explained, "not a soldier. Besides, I never really liked them anyways."

"At least you did something I never could." I replied, pointing to the corpses on the ground. I picked up a Sniper rifle off of one of the soldiers, and grabbed a shotgun from the dead Warrior soldier. As I walked towards the captain, I heard the Mark V soldier mutter, "Were it so easy…"

I picked up the captain's railgun and his C4 detonator, briefly equipping them to the front and back hip of my armor, respectively. I hurriedly scavenged as much ammunition as I could and walked back into the pit. Looking around for any sign of machinery, I saw the alien AI enter something into a holographic screen. I curiously asked him, "What were you called by the simulation troopers?" I did not expect his sudden reply.

"Santa."

I looked back to the Mark V soldier, and he just shrugged it off, grabbing more pistol ammo preparing for the next inevitable wave of soldiers that would follow. They would realize that their squad had died and would send in as many soldiers as they could to kill me and the Mark V soldier. Aiming a pistol towards the forest, he turned towards me and shouted, "Whatever you're going to do, make it quick! I'll hold them off as long as I can."

As he turned back to face the forest, nearby whirring caught my attention. I slowly turned towards the sound to find four pod-like machines coming out from the pit wall. Felix and I once searched a facility looking for files on the Freelancers and found a room full of robotic bodies in cryopods. These machines looked exactly like them. The first one connected two of the cyropod looking machines together. That one had to be the cloning machine, and the two pods were probably for one person to enter and the other was for the clone to exit. The second one had a swirling purple portal behind it; that one had to be the teleporter. That meant the last one must be the time machine. A curious looking device, it had very faint yellow-green rings spinning around the entrance of the pod. It seemed to have a different essence than the other ones, with a different feeling emitting from it. The alien AI materialized in front of me and looked towards the direction of the cloning machine. I entered one of the pods and felt it close me in. I blinked and for what seemed like a second was really five minutes as I noticed 7 other soldiers trying to kill the Mark V soldier. He was athletic enough to dodge most of their shots and ended up killing most of the soldiers. Suddenly, a shot came out from my left, and I turned to see an exact copy of me shooting at the soldiers that were still alive. I stepped out of the machine and immediately took out my sniper rifle. As I cloaked myself with the Active Camouflage module, I shot down the rest of the soldiers, only to see a Pelican dropship start dropping more enemies into the fray.

"Quickly human! Get your clone to enter the time machine! I have already set his destination in the timeline, and have erased his memories." The AI suddenly commanded. I noticed that the clone also had a module just like mine, and realized that the AI was telling the truth. I told the clone to enter the other machine, and to wait for the alien AI's signal. He agreed, and knew exactly what to do. I ran towards the teleportation machine only to see two soldiers drop in front of it. Not wanting to risk damaging the machine, I pulled out my sword and prepared for a duel. The other soldiers looked at each other, then back at me. Or at least where I was. I had activated my camo module right when they were looking at each other, and walked right behind them. With a swift swing, I slashed their backs, watching them fall onto the ground. It was then when I realized that I could not redeem myself alone.

I quickly turned towards a pedestal that Santa used to materialize, and yelled for him. He promptly appeared, looking quite worried, and asked, "What are you doing? You are supposed to be inside the teleportation machine!"

I inserted a data implant that I had in the back of my helmet into the pedestal and in turn asked it, "Can you transfer yourself into the implant and make a copy of yourself to take care of my comrade?" It seemed like a reasonable request, but I was running out of time. The Mark V soldier was doing impressive on his own, slaughtering all of the soldiers that got in his way. He even managed to bring down the pelican dropship using a rocket launcher he picked off a dead soldier. The AI stopped for a second and then swiftly answered,

"I have completed your request, but you need to hurry."

I took the implant from the pedestal and inserted it into my helmet. As soon as I heard the click, I ran as fast as I could towards the teleporter. Gunfire rained over my head as I jumped right into the seat of the machine. Closing it behind me, I turned and saw the Mark V soldier holding his own against dozens of heavily armed soldiers with detachable machine gun turrets. The gunners were being shot down faster than they could shoot their guns at him. He was good. Really good.

The sound of machine gun fire hitting the teleporter brought me back to my senses. I quickly let Santa activate the teleporter and watched as the Mark V soldier ran out of bullets for his pistol. He rammed one of the gunners head on and snatched his gun from him, quickly using it to spray down the rest of the gunners. As all three machines started to activate, I looked in horror as three soldiers with rocket launchers began firing at the machines. Alarms started ringing inside the machine, and I yelled to Santa, "ACTIVATE THE MACHINE NOW! BEFORE WE BOTH DIE!" Santa reluctantly activated the system and started the time machine. A blinding light flashed before all of our eyes and the machine opened, revealing itself to be empty of any passenger. The clone had made it to the past. But we were still in an unfortunate predicament.

Out of nowhere, the teleportation machine activated prematurely. Yellow-green rings began to circle the pod just as black and purple swirls began to envelope the both the pod and the rings. Santa appeared, rather worried looking and displayed his concern, "The energy from the time machine is mixing with the teleportation energy! If we go through with this, we will have ourselves preoccupied with more problems than even my creators have ever faced."

And then the pod started to shake violently. It began to hum very lowly, until it started whirring so loud that it almost popped my eardrums. The world around me started to spin and I began to get dizzy, up to the point that I almost threw up. Suddenly, the pod began to disintegrate into tiny rose like petals. It continued to disintegrate until it was only me flying through the air.

"Impact in 20 seconds." Santa spoke as I felt the ground rushing towards me. The first thing that I noticed was the trees. Then a city. The very world looked different, and I braced for impact.

 _Boom!_

As I hit the ground I made a crater bigger than the size of one of the tree trunks in the forest. I looked around and realized that I had escaped the soldiers. Speaking to Santa, I asked, "So where in the universe did we land exactly."

He didn't answer. For a long time, he stayed quiet, until he finally spoke with a grave tone.

"I do not know where we are. I am not getting any signals of any of my creator's artifacts, which is impossible since they had at least one on every planet in the galaxy. There is only one logical solution to this problem: The energy from the time machine and the teleportation machine must have fused and sent us to a universe where we have never existed before. "

Horrified, I asked him, "Are you saying that-"

"We are in an alternate universe."

* * *

 **A/N: First chapter of first story. Enjoy.**


	2. Unknown Territory

I shook my head, not believing a single word that the AI was saying. How could we be in an alternate universe? There had to be some logical thought behind this all. It was not like… Oh no…

"Santa, while we were leaving, some soldiers were shooting at us with rocket launchers. Is it possible that the rockets could have damaged both the teleporter's and the time machines systems?" I asked with a hint of fear. For some reason, I was showing a lot more emotion than I normally would. Usually, I would just bottle up the feelings and analyze the situation. However, it seemed that we wouldn't be analyzing anything at all.

Before our eyes lay a giant city that was bigger than even Armonia. Its walls were at least 12 feet tall with huge towers at its vertices. Giant ships flew overhead as the booming sound of crates dropping echoed through the air. Perhaps this city was industrial based, selling weapons to anyone with a high price. Perhaps this city was just like Charon's forces, selling weapons, making money, and ruling over the world with ease. If that was the case, then these people would be a danger to everyone and would need to be stopped. The other thing that I noticed was the snow. It covered the entire forest and everything as far as I could see. If it was a frozen planet, then it would be hard to keep warm. Skeptical, I awaited Santa's answer and hoped it would bring good news. He appeared in front of me and began to state his results.

"After analyzing the situation by replaying it through my mind, I realized that the teleporter and the time machine were indeed damaged. But what really caught my attention was the fact that the explosion from the rockets was absorbed into the energy and propelled us into a time where events played out differently. Technically, this is an alternate timeline, but majorly altered enough to call it an alternate universe." Santa said as-matter-of-factly.

If that was true, we would probably have no chance of ever getting back home. Then again, do I really want to go back, running away from Charon's forces as I tried to save as many people as I could? I could be exposed as a former mercenary of his, and be hunted down the rest of my life. Perhaps this unfortunate series of events were for the better. We would have to wait and see.

The one thing I was worried about was the ships. Those ships were unlike anything I had ever seen before. About the same size as a pelican, it seemed capable of carrying around a ton of cargo and according to Santa's calculations, it should be able to house about 5 passengers each. After quickly looking over at the massive fleet, I realized if they engaged us, we would have around 4000 hostiles. Not exactly the amount of people you want shooting guns at you. Then again, it would take a very long time for them to find me. I had invisibility on my side, and I was an excellent shot. I could probably take out 30 hostiles before the rest notice, and then I could go invisible and run along the forest, picking off as many people as I could. As I prepared my sniper rifle, Santa spoke.

"It would be best not to shoot them. We have no idea what these people are capable of. What if their weaponry could trap you in a box with hungry wolves? We have no idea of what is logical and what is not in this world." He argued, as he dematerialized.

He had a point. We couldn't just fire at them, without knowing the world we were in. Santa disappeared as I lowered my rifle, instead opting to walk towards the city gates. If there _were_ any gates. The city had to have an entrance, but nothing seemed to strike my mind of what the entrance would look like. Suddenly, I had an idea. I was wondering how to call Santa, when his voice just appeared through my helmet.

" _You do realize that I can speak to you through here, correct?"_

I turned off the speaker on my helmet that allowed me to use my voice filter and project my voice as I asked, "Can you use my motion sensor in any way to find an entrance to the city? Maybe map out the area?"

Santa, knowing now what I wanted to do, replied, _"Yes, as a matter of fact, I can. Your motion sensor is capable of showing 2D projections of what within a 25 meter radius of your position. What I can do is manipulate the sensors so they can detect everywhere in a 25 meter radius, and send the images to your HUD. However, this will use up your suit's power and it will shut off when you don't have enough energy to run it. At the rate of your armor's power, you can probably have this map up for around 24 hours before shutting off. I hope you don't take that long to find a way in."_

It was the perfect solution, and even better, I had an AI capable of running the suit properly. As Santa began working on remodeling the motion sensor, I started walking along the outskirts of the city walls. Then out of nowhere, a 3D map of everything around me formed on my HUD, pushing aside all other icons, save for my shielding icon. It showed every vehicle, entity, and object in sight. It worked exactly how the motion sensor worked, enemies in red, vehicles and if they were occupied, objects in my way, and me as a yellow soldier. Anything that moved was caught by the sensor in the exact shape that it took. Whether it be a man or a dropship, I could see it all. I continued walking, looking for an entrance that hopefully existed until something strange showed up on my radar. It seemed to take the shape of a weird looking wolf, standing on its hind legs. I stopped and looked for it, catching a glimpse of it as it hid behind a tree. The map automatically shut off and I noticed three changes on my HUD, the first being a green stripe covering the normal blue stripe that represented my shield capacity. The second and third ones being a red tint cover the edges of my visor, as well as a blue one. They fused together to create a purple tint. Fearing that my suit had overloaded its power, I stopped.

" _Do not worry."_ It was Santa.

" _I have redirected the power from the map to double your shielding, as well as increase your speed and your strength. I sensed the creature as well, and it seemed to be either territorial or a pack animal. I made sure that you would be able to either outrun it or outmatch the pack in battle."_

Smart. I activated my camo module and went to flank it on the right. I walked to the right of where the creature was and was awestruck. The creature was a wolf-like creature, with blood red eyes and teeth, standing on its hind legs. It growled in such a way that perhaps even Felix would stop talking and run away. It went on all fours and broke into a sprint, jumping into the air as if to try and catch me standing there. Instead, it fell flat on its face, landing face first in the snow. As soon as it got up, it howled louder than any normal wolf. I was worried about one demon looking wolf, but I got even more nervous as more howls returned the call. I took out my sniper rifle and aimed towards the creature.

 _Bang!_

The bullet shot it straight through the head, causing it to suddenly stiffen. It slumped to the ground, blood oozing from its head. The part that caught me staring at it was how it began to slowly disintegrate into black ashes. These things were _not_ regular wolves. These were something more. I remembered that it had called its brethren, put away my sniper rifle, and stood in a fighting stance. I decloaked to save energy just as more of the creatures came running through the forest towards the outskirts. Santa counted about 15 of the entities, _"With more coming through the forest every minute,"_ he reassured.

That meant there was going to be about an army of wolf-like creatures all waiting to rip me to shreds. I didn't know if they wanted to eat me, or if they were solely trying to kill me because that was their purpose. And I didn't know if I could handle them all. Still, it was worth giving it a try. I took out my SAW and prepared for a battle.

The animals all started charging at me as I began firing. Most of them were taken out by the spray of bullets that followed. While continuing to fire, I noticed one trying to flank me on the left. As it swiped at me, I somersaulted backwards out of the way and dropped my SAW. Taking out my shotgun, I saw one of them jump straight for me and shot it. Running through some of them, I jumped off one of the creatures, ricocheting off another, and landed on another. Shooting two of the creatures while spinning, I slipped on the one I was stepping on, leaving me to fall on my side. I used the momentum to continue spinning, shooting one of the wolves in the face while landing on my feet. I kicked the wolf on the ground into a group of them nearby while somersaulting in the air once more, shooting a wolf in the face right after landing. Santa continuously warned me of incoming enemies, such as the wolf trying to slash at me from behind. I block its arm and kicked it, shooting it in midair for good measure. I delivered a jumping spinning back kick to two wolves coming up behind me and shot them both. I quickly dodged a swipe from in front of me by sliding back and shot the creature that made it. Another wolf came right at me, attempting to rip my face off. As I blocked it, I noticed it used the recoil to try and slash at my leg. I checked it in the arm and attempted to shoot its face. It blocked the gun and tried to swipe with its other arm. While doing so, it left its stomach wide open for a knee strike, and ended up getting kicked away as I shot one jumping behind me without turning. I turned around to swiftly quick another creature twice, sending it flying away, and quickly somersaulting while kicking a third wolf in the face.

As I landed, I kicked another one into the crowd of corpses, immediately shooting it in the chest. I realized that they were surrounding me, and keeping their distance, with only about 3 attacking at a time. More of them rushed through the forest, attracted to the sound of the gunfire. I decided to run towards a more open area so I could see exactly how many were left.

While I ran, Santa calmly stated, _"There are 23 of the creatures left. A big enough explosion should be able to kill off the rest of the creatures."_ After hearing this, I strapped all of my grenades together and dropped them behind me. I abruptly stopped to turn around and shoot the explosives, killing the rest of the wolves, save for an injured one that was at the very back of the crowd. As it lay down, I put my foot on its arm and shot it in the face. Lifeless, I was about to put my shotgun away when something tackled me from the side.

As I stood up, I saw a two huge black bear-like creatures looming over me. They had some sort of white bone-like mask with red detailing on it, as well as bony spikes on their backs and arms. The one that had tackled me possessed many bony plates on its back and limbs, had more spikes on its back, and was much larger than the other one. I got up from the attack, realizing that I dropped my weapon while being tackled, and prepared to fight once more. As it began to charge at me, with the strength boost that Santa provided, I knocked the bear straight to the ground with a left hook. It got on its knees and slammed the ground in anger. It got back up, attempting to swipe first with its right paw, then with its left paw. I swiftly dodged the attacks, followed by stepping back to avoid it's upwards swipe. The creature swiped with its left paw again, but this time I blocked it. It went straight for a right swipe, then a left swipe. Pushing them aside, I blocked the incoming right swipe and pushed its arm upward to get it off balance. While it tried to swipe upwards towards my chest, I quickly punched it in the throat, grabbed its head, and struck it with my knee. While it was stunned, I back kicked it away. I looked around for a way out and instead found my SAW that was still lying on the ground, as well as my shotgun. I grabbed both weapons, put away my shotgun, and started firing the SAW at the huge bear. It looked up to see the incoming fire and, while looking for cover, ran into a block of ice. I looked up from the block of ice and saw that while I was consumed by the battle, I had moved further away from the city, and towards a huge mountain with a frozen lake nearby. I realized that the bear was getting up again, so to keep it where it was I took out my shotgun as well, using the shells and the bullets from my SAW to keep it at bay. I heard a growl and turned around quickly as I narrowly avoided the smaller bear's swipe. Using only its left hand, it swatted the shotgun out of my hand and tried to swipe at my SAW. I dodged the attack and hit it to the side. The smaller bear hit the ground just as the larger one began to charge at me again. It managed to tackle me once more, holding my arms down. While I meekly attempted to shoot it, it tried to bite at my face. I put my foot on its chest to keep myself away from its jaws and managed to kick it off of me. As the creatures regrouped, Santa noted the mountain, and I had a brilliant idea. I put away my SAW and instead took out my C4 detonator, shooting the mountain side. The bears looked at each other in confusion as I pulled the trigger.

The ensuing explosion caused an avalanche of ice that began to fall on the bears. Realizing the situation they were in, the smaller bear ran towards me, followed by the larger bear. The smaller one tried swiping at me, but I grabbed its arm and kicked it back. Just then, the larger bear jumped over it and swiped me in the face, depleting my overshields a bit. The smaller bear growled towards the larger one, which ended up trying to spinning swipe at me. I dodged the assault to find the smaller one jumping in the air and hitting me in the face. As it tried to slash at me with its left and right paws, I blocked them, grabbed the bear and threw it to the side. A piece of ice landed in front of me as the larger one jumped over it and head-butted me. I looked up to see a huge pillar of ice falling towards me, and I dodged out of the way, only to jump on it as the larger bear punched it towards me. A piece of ice landed on the other end, sending me flying in the air. The smaller bear ran up one of the pieces of ice that was still falling, attempting to try and catch me. As I jumped off another piece of ice, I saw the larger bear charging towards me and the smaller one jumping in front of it. I landed on the ground, sliding away from the pair of creatures while narrowly dodging a large piece of ice that landed in between both me and the bears. Taking advantage of it, I punched it towards the animals, causing the smaller one to fall backwards in order to dodge it. The ice crashed into another ice pillar, making a little platform of ice. The larger bear jumped on top of the ice platform and pushed off of it, jumping towards me. I ran up a piece of ice to intercept it and jumped. I grabbed it by the neck and ended up flipping it so I ended up carrying it sideways on its back, promptly hurting its spine. I felt a sharp pain in my back as I remembered it had spikes on its back. I threw it off and back kicked it away towards the smaller bear, which had just recovered from the ice piece. Most of the ice had fallen and there was little cover. However, while trying to dodge the ice and kill the creatures, I ended up moving into the middle of the lake, which gave me an idea. As the smaller bear charged towards me, I shot a C4 explosive at the lake and detonated it, causing the frozen surface of the lake to sink.

I quickly ran to back to where my fallen weapon was, and in the process got slashed by the smaller bear as it tried to kill me. My leg began to sting from the snow that got in the cut from landing on the ground hard. As I got up, I noticed that I had only killed the smaller bear as the larger bear managed to survive and charge towards me. Exhausted and weakened, I took out my knife and weakly blocked it as it tried to swipe downwards at my face. I hit it in the face with the butt of my knife, following it with a swift left cross. As it attempted to swipe at me from the left, I went under the swipe while slashing its stomach. The knife got loose from my grasp and went spinning upwards. I used that to my advantage, grabbed it with the blade facing down and stabbed the beast in the back. It roared in pain and kicked me behind it, rolling as well to stay in front of me. I lay on the ground, out of breath, and started to get up, only to be grabbed by the bear. It began to choke me as it stabbed its claws into my helmet, piercing it and ripping it off. Thinking it had killed me, the creature threw me behind it without looking.

I landed hard on the snow, my ginger hair being tainted with the white flakes of snow. I stood up and tried to regain my balance, but landed on my white face again. Without any AI to aid me in killing the beast, I had to go on a more tactical route. I noticed that I had two hooks with me, one that I would use for rappelling down walls. I also had a rope in case I had to bring my comrades down a large building. I noticed a large piece of ice that was near the edge of the lake and got had an idea.

I stood up and finally managed to stand without falling. The beast had managed to somehow take the knife out of its back through all of its spikes and throw it away. The knife landed right beside me and caused the creature to realize I was still alive. As it jumped at me, I rolled to the side of it and cut it twice in the stomach. I tried to get it with a right hook, but it managed to roll away. It abruptly stopped, causing snow to fly in all directions, and it began to charge straight for me. Trying to do my best to utilize my knife throwing skills that Felix taught me, I aimed straight for its left eye and threw. The knife hit its mark and caused the animal to angrily slam the ground, shaking me off balance. At this point, I had landed right beside the ice piece. Whether it was by luck or by fate, I took the opportunity to stab one of the hooks into the frozen block, connecting it to one end of the rope, and stick a C4 explosive on it. I then connected the other hook to the other end of the rope and waited for the creature to come at me. The bear, not knowing what I was doing, began to charge at me again. I took out my railgun and began to fire at it to hopefully slow it down. Instead, it stopped completely, crouching so the explosives would hit its armor like spines, giving me enough time to stand back up. The force of the explosions knocked the knife out of its eye, and to avoid being hit any longer, it jumped up and slammed into the ground, causing me to stagger back and trip over my shotgun. Noticing it, I put away my railgun, picked up the shotgun in my left hand, and took out my sword with my right hand. I tried to slice at it, but the bear knocked me aside, allowing me to shoot it with my shotgun. It hit the bear straight in the face, but due to the bone-like mask it had, it did no damage. So I did the least logical thing when trying to fight a bear with spikes. I jumped on its back and tried to get it to fall on the ground. I ended up being thrown off and resorted to using my shotgun once more. It punched me in the gut, causing me to bend over, and made hit me with a left uppercut, making me fall on my back. It grabbed my leg and began to spin me in circles. Trying to get it to drop me, I attempted to shoot it twice in the face, but it dodged the shots and threw me in the direction of a nearby tree. I quickly positioned myself to land feet first on the tree trunk, ricocheted off of it, and stabbed me sword into its chest. In anger, it swiped at me with its left paw, and sent me flying by hitting me with a right swipe using the momentum I built staggering from its previous attack. I took the hook attached to my back and, using my left hand only, pumped the shotgun and fired. It gained the attention of the beast and made it slowly made its way towards me. I kept pumping and firing until it knocked away my shotgun with one hand and grabbed me by the throat, lifting me up in the air. I quickly stabbed the hook into its already wounded eye, took out the C4 detonator with my free hand, and detonated the awaiting bomb. The force pushed the block of ice into the lake, dragging the bear by the head with it. It had dropped me, but grabbed me by the leg and began to pull me with it. Quickly thinking, I saw I was getting closer to my knife that was still lying near the edge of the lake. I grabbed it and forcefully stopped myself by plunging it into the snow, loosening the grip of the bear and causing it to sink into the ice cold water.

Exhausted, I realized I had used up all of my SAW ammo, my shotgun ammo, half my railgun ammo, and all but one of my C4 explosives. This left me with 3 railgun rounds and only one C4. Grabbing my battle-damaged helmet, I was relieved to see that Santa was still intact, albeit very worried about my condition.

" _You have 37 puncture wounds, 5 broken ribs, 13 broken bones, and a shattered pelvis. Hopefully you will be lucky enough to survive long enough to enter the city. If only-"_

After hearing him ramble about how I should choose different battle tactics, I realized that we ended up making it to the entrance of the city. I collapsed on the snow, tired, and unable to think clearly, closed my eyes.

" _One entity heading in our direction."_ Santa suddenly said. I was already drifting away from consciousness and couldn't focus at all. The last thing I heard was a feminine voice.

"What did you do out there?"

* * *

 **A/N: Hey guys, check out for sneak peeks of the next chapter at** **topic/184972/142184200/1/Sneak-Peeks**

 **Enjoy.**


	3. Mirror Mirror

I woke up in a daze, without being able to recount any previous events. I had no idea where I was, or how I got there. I deep voice spoke in front of me, concerned about the condition I was in. I was pretty sure I got hurt somehow, but I didn't know how. Was it from a fall? I do remember falling. Then teeth. Then ice. Then a feminine voice. All of a sudden I remembered. Traveling through the machine, the fight, collapsing on the ground, and that voice. Whoever she was, she saved both mine and Santa's life…

SANTA! I sat up straight and realized that I was bound to a cot without my armor. I frantically looked around for my armor, hoping that Santa would still be alright. The helmet _was_ damaged extensively, but if the person who took off my armor also tampered with it, then they could have mistakenly destroyed part of my armor. I hope that they didn't. Speaking of other people, I finally stopped struggling and looked up to see a girl, who couldn't have been older than a teenager, staring back at me. She was dressed all in white, wearing some sort of white jacket and a white skirt of some sorts. The one noticeable thing about her was the sword by her side. It seemed like one of those old swords used even before intergalactic travel… A rapier. I remember now. Felix and I practiced using them for about 3 days as a part of training. But why would this little girl have one?

"Good, you're awake. I was hoping that you didn't die. You passed out right outside the city covered in blood and stuff! Do you have any idea how much this cost me?" The girl shrieked at me. Unfortunate. This girl had enough money to pay for hospital bills? Now I have to find a way to pay her back… If I could even get a job.

"So who are you, where did you come from, what were you thinking, and did you even know what you were doing out there?" She peppered me with questions.

I sat up straight and replied, "My name is Locus. If I were to tell you where I came from, then you most likely won't believe me."

Before I answered her other questions, she interrupted, "Well Locus, that armor you have there? Nothing like that has ever been built before. I tried to pry it open, save your helmet, but some sort of energy shielding blocked me from getting in there. Obviously, it is much more superior to Atlas' combat androids. So you might as well tell me what you know since you obviously didn't come from here, as stupid as it sounds."

She was taking this surprisingly well, and by the way she quickly figured out how my armor worked I could tell she was much smarter than most of the marines back home. However, I still didn't know much about this world, and if this girl was not the only one to know this information, then I would have a very serious problem.

I was about to speak when suddenly my armor flickered on, and a holographic image appeared from it. Santa was still alive, and he did not seem very concerned, but then again, he didn't exactly look pleased either.

"We have come from a place where you don't exist. An alternate universe, if you will. Back where we came from-" Santa continued to explain everything to the girl, from the part where I sat down in that quiet corner of the communications temple, all the way up to the part where we fought the two bears. She suddenly looked at me in awe.

"You were able to defeat two Ursai, one being an Ursa Major and one being an Ursa Minor, and around fifty Beowolves by yourself? No one has been able to defeat that many Grimm before." She said in a high pitched voice that almost hurt my ears.

"Wait, so the creatures we fought are called Grimm, the bears are called Ursai, and the wolves are known as Beowolves?" I inquired.

"Yes. It seems you have a lot to learn about this world. But you know what? I think I might know just the person to help you with this. First, let's get you out of these cuffs. You really don't seem comfortable in them." She giggled and took out her rapier. With a look of fear, I winced as she swiftly brought her sword down, cutting the cuffs off of my wrist. She proceeded to do the same to the one holding my other arm down, as well as the ones on my ankles. I immediately went for my armor, putting it on as quickly as possible. Without my armor, I was around a head taller than her, but as I put it on, I realized that I towered over her by an entire foot. She looked up at me without any hint of fear. She seemed confident that she could put me down if need be, and she probably could. I would have to be careful with her. I realized that my helmet had split into three pieces, but were still able to connect together fortunately: the back piece where I put the data card holding Santa was able to connect to another piece that covered my jaw and mouth, and a piece that was supposed to show my surroundings through the metal.

Staring at the helmet pieces as I tried to put it back together, the girl noted, "The mouth piece looks like the bottom jaw of a skeleton. Is that supposed to be intimidating?"

I put on the now fixed helmet, activated my voice filter, and said, "You tell me."

She looked me up and down and replied, "I'm guessing it's supposed to, but it's not that scary to me. Even with your little voice changing act. Now stop trying to act like you're tough and all. We have to get you to the one person that can help you understand the world better."

She was starting to get very annoying, but she didn't seem afraid at all. If only she knew the monster I was before the teleportation incident. As I grabbed my weaponry, I asked the girl a question.

"What is your name?"

"Weiss. Weiss Schnee."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Weiss."

"Nice to meet you too Locus… I don't believe that Locus is your real name."

I chuckled and responded, "As a matter of fact, it's not. Locus is simply the codename of my helmet variant. My real name, I'm not going to tell you as of now. We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

* * *

 **Weiss' POV**

Locus gestured towards the door saying, "Lead the way. I come from another universe, so I'm not exactly familiar with… well, anywhere in this world."

I opened the door and started walking down a long corridor that led to the front entrance. I wasn't so sure if I could trust this walking tank. He seemed more like a brute, with no finesse or agility. However, if the… what did it call itself? An artificial intelligence or AI for short? If that AI was correct, then not only was this person a mass of muscle, he was also a good tactician, a fast fighter, someone great with all sorts of combat techniques that didn't require dust, aura, or semblance, and a force to be reckoned with. However, if it came down to me battling him, then while he would have the combat advantage, I would have the magical and battlefield advantages. I could easily knock him off with a couple of glyphs, but I would have to be wary of his camouflage module the AI mentioned. I knew the area better than he did, and I could easily trap him in a block of ice in order to finish him off. I would have to do it quick before somebody showed up, or else I could possibly be charged with murder…

No, I don't need to do this. I don't need to do anything at all. I just need to find a way for him to trust me, to trust that I was a good guy, and he would most likely not harm me or anyone else. I guess I'm already getting on his good side leading him to her. The one person that knew more than anyone in Vale about the world. I never really visited her, I only just saw here a couple of times sitting on her porch, just closing her eyes as if she was waiting for something. However, it was the only real shot that I had. I couldn't just bring him up to my parents, since they would probably do something terrible just to gain that armor of his.

Funny, he kind of reminded me of that Torchwick guy on the news. He kind of looked like him too, but he seems calmer, almost like that brief moment when it's raining and the sun suddenly shines for a couple seconds before the rain starts again. The thing is, I'll never truly be able to tell when the rain will hit, and when it does, I will have to be ready.

* * *

 **Locus' POV**

As we got to the entrance of the hospital, I looked around and saw that the city was indeed a vast place. The streets were filled by cars and the stoplights were all holographic. Skyscrapers filled the sky with shades of grey as I kept up with Weiss. We walked for at least a mile by Santa's calculations, until we reached the outer walls of the city once more. The familiar sight made me cringe as I remembered the fight once more. Continuing down a dirt path, the two of us walked in silence. It was only a short while after when Weiss spoke up.

"So, have you ever killed anyone before?"

The questions caught me off guard a bit, causing me to lose focus and stumble. I quickly regained my balance and stayed silent, not sure of how she would react if I answered. Only one way to find out.

"Yes, I have, unfortunately. I was a soldier working for a governmental military force called the United Nations Space Command, or the UNSC for short. In the universe that I came from, we were in a war with a collective of alien species. During the war, I had to put down many aliens in order to survive." I stated, hoping that would be good enough for her.

Apparently, it was not.

"Stop avoiding the question. You know what I mean. Have you ever killed a _human_ before?" she asked with an annoyed tone.

Unfortunate. The cop-out didn't work, and now I actually have to tell her about… about Chorus. Or maybe I didn't have to. I sighed, and looking down I replied, "You probably know what I'm going to say. I just want to let you know I want to redeem myself for my actions, and hopefully start a new life. Say what you want, since it will most likely be the right thing to say. I can explain to you in full once we reach somewhere safe, but please, not right now."

I held my breath, awaiting her answer. Instead, she just looked down, staying silent as we walked along the dirt road. After a minute or so she looked up and suddenly asked, "Do you ever get tired of wearing that armor, and carrying all of those weapons?"

"Actually, not really. The armor is pretty heavy if you try to lift it, but when moving in it it's much lighter. The weapons I barely even feel. Strange, I still wonder how the manufacturers manage to do that."

"You sure? 'Cause that looks pretty heavy. You also got some weird thing on your leg. Looks like a scroll."

"A what?"

"Right," she said with a facepalm, "I forgot you're not from around here." She stopped walking and rummaged through her bag. I stopped and looked behind her to see if there were any incoming pedestrians. Seeing as there was no one walking down this lonely path besides me and Weiss, I looked at her to see a metal cylinder in her hands.

"A scroll is this thing," she said as she pulled the sides of the cylinder apart. A screen showed in between the two half-cylinders. A number of icons appeared, including a picture of herself in the top right corner. "Everyone uses one. It's used for communication, researching, note-taking, and recording purposes." She put the scroll back into her backpack and pointed at my deactivated sword. "So what's that?"

I pulled it off my leg and activated it, scaring her a bit as it suddenly appeared. "Eek! Is that a sword made out of shaped plasma?" she asked with a frightened tone. I was about to answer when all of a sudden, Santa appeared in front of both of us and answered for me.

"You are indeed correct, human. The object you are referring to is specifically known as "The Great Key of Chorus", but it is generally known as a Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword. The Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword consists of a curved hilt, housing an energy storage module and a device for projecting the plasma which forms the blade. The actual blade is composed of two partially ionized 'blades' of free moving electron based gas held in a blade-like form by two small magnetic-field generators built into the handle of the weapon. This forms and contains the oval shaped, ionized blades. The user of this blade can use its energy to activate certain temples that were created by my creators. Since none exist in this universe, the activation part of this blade is utterly useless. However, a failsafe was implemented into the hilt to prevent anyone other than the person who picked it up from using the sword. The hilt scans the person who first picks it up and registers them as the user and registers that the user is alive. If the blade is used by anyone other than the user, the blade deactivates, and will only activate again if the user is dead. If the user happens to stab someone and leave the blade in the area which they stabbed, the sword will stay active for one minute before deactivating, unless picked up by the user, where it will remain active until deactivated, or unless someone else picks it up, upon which the blade will deactivate."

While Santa was rambling on about how the sword worked, Weiss and I had already packed our stuff up and continued walking again. "So does that explain how the Great Key works?" Santa asked after walking for at least 3 more miles. We never answered his question because we were too busy staring at the huge monument in front of us.

Weiss, her eyes wide with awe, said, "You wanted a safe place? Here it is."

Towering over us was a huge white castle, almost blending in with the snow outside. It had black walls with white details, a black floor, and a large circular hole in the ceiling that presumably allows light to come through. A lone corridor was positioned in the middle of the castle, with a snowflake at the end which looked identical to the one that Weiss had on her jacket.

"We'll stop here for the night, and then we'll get going to our objective." Weiss said, laying down her stuff on one of the walls. I placed my empty guns down beside her pack, and began to wander around. The place had a giant central hall, with a stage for performances, with rows of seats for the audience. "This place is used for performances and concerts. I actually have to go here in a few days for a song that I'll be singing. Dad always told me that the hall looked incredible, but I never got to see it with my own eyes. Seeing as it's on the way to our goal, I might as well get used to the look of this place while we're on our way." She said with a very tired look on her face. The trip must have done wonders to her endurance, as she immediately took out a sleeping bag and fell asleep.

As tired as I was, I didn't fall asleep for a couple of reasons:

1\. It was still noon.

2\. It wasn't even that far of a walk (at least by my standards).

3\. I had to secure the perimeter of any Grimm.

Using my sniper rifle's scope, I spent the next 10 hours patrolling the area around the castle, looking for any hostiles, and eventually trying to make myself tired after 9 since it began to become boring. I walked back to the entrance and saw Weiss was awake, albeit very tired. She was sitting up straight, looking both sleep-deprived and angry simultaneously.

"Locus! What are you doing still awake?! It's 10 o'clock at night! If that was you making all of those noises inside the castle, then I will be very mad since you ruined my good night's rest!" she screamed at me.

"Weiss," I slowly began to speak, "I haven't been in the castle since noon. I was patrolling the outside the entire time…"

Wide-eyed, she got up and unsheathed her rapier as I aimed my sniper rifle at the darkness behind her. She turned around and held her sword up as both of us began to slowly walk towards the shadows. The clinking of metal made us freeze in position, as a cloud blocking the moon moved away. Weiss put down her sword and closed her eyes while I put down my sniper rifle. At least we would be able to see what was causing the noise. Unfortunately, it was something that was out to kill us.

As the moon shone from above, its light shone through the hole in the ceiling and reflected off a giant set of armor kneeling down. Weiss opened her eyes and we both stared in both shock and awe as the armor stood up and held its gigantic sword, preparing to attack. The armor was at least one and a half times the size of a Mantis Class Android, and the sword it carried was about the same size. Unfortunate. The armor spun around and struck downwards, forcing Weiss to backflip out of the way and me to roll away to the right. I immediately began firing my sniper rifle, but the bullets caused little damage as the armor focused solely on Weiss. Noting on how not even one clip was not affecting it, I put away my sniper rifle and took out my sword. Santa immediately activated my damage boost, my speed boost, and my overshields as Weiss took out her rapier. Quick as lightning, she pointed her rapier at the armor and somehow glided towards the armor with the intention to stab it. Anticipating the attack, the armor struck upwards, parrying the stab and sending her flying upwards. I saw the armor was about to strike downwards on her position and ran in quickly to block it. I stood directly in front of it and caught the blade with my bare hands, taking the entire force of the blow as Weiss speedily moved to the left. The hit was so powerful it knocked out my overshields **and** half my normal shields. I let the sword slide off to my right as I turned to nod at Weiss. She went behind the armor and jumped at it, while I ran up its sword and began cutting into the helmet with my energy sword. The armor first saw Weiss and began to swings sideways at her while she was in midair. She instinctively held up her rapier and blocked the incoming attack, being pushed farther back into the room.

While fighting, Santa's said through my helmet, _"That armor is too powerful for even The Great Key of Chorus to damage it, and your sniper rounds are doing nothing but ricocheting, increasing the percent of getting killed by 14%. However, an explosive might do the trick. It may not be able to kill it, but it will be able to weaken the armor enough for you to shatter it after with a second blow."_

I tried to stick my only C4 explosive onto its helmet, but it managed to grab hold of me and throw me off, landing me right beside Weiss. We both looked up to see the armor jump up in the air and slam down towards our position. My shields were still recharging, so I immediately rolled to the left while Weiss moved to the right. I took out the detonator and fired at it, landing a perfect shot right in the middle of its torso. It was oblivious to the bomb stuck to its chest and continued slicing at Weiss, causing her to backflip towards my position until a sideways slash hit her across the room. She used the momentum to backflip onto her feet as the armor turned its attention to me. Holding up my arms in front of my face, I blocked the attack just as my overshields were halfway through recharging. The blow completely took out my shields and knocked me to the back of the room, forcing me to re-strategize. Checking my rounds again, I realized that I had only 12 sniper rifle rounds left, with 4 in the clip, 3 railgun rounds, and that C4 explosive stuck to its chest, flashing red as the timer continued counting down.

I turned around to look for Weiss to see her make some weird hand gestures. Suddenly, some sort of hieroglyphic symbol appeared underneath her and boosted her speed. Unfortunate. She has some kind of magic that she uses to make stuff enhance her skills? I wonder what else this world had for me. It seemed like that display of sorcery was not enough. Weiss sped straight through the armor's legs, doing a cartwheel to avoid a blow as the armor tried to slash at her. She jumped in the air and slashed at the armor's helmet before using another of those symbols to propel her back towards the armor. Seeing an opportunity to strike the armor while it was distracted, I pulled out my railgun and fired until I ran out of rounds. Meanwhile, Weiss kept slashing at its legs, seeing as I was aiming at the giant hunk of metal's face. As soon as I ran out of ammo, she used another symbol to boost her jump as she hit the armor in the face, causing it to flinch a little. Another symbol appeared as she shot straight towards the helmet in a horizontal motion. She continued to swipe at its helmet, causing the armor to look down in exhaustion, if that… thing could even feel exhausted. It suddenly looked up to see Weiss balancing on another of her symbols, which seemed to act as a platform for her. It swung its sword sideways, causing Weiss to jump in the air, leaving her in a vulnerable position. The armor took advantage of that and punched her straight in the face, sending her flying across the room.

"WEISS!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. With a sudden outburst of anger I ran straight towards the armor with my sword activated. The armor noticed me coming and prepared to block the incoming attack, but was not prepared for what happened next.

I saw something flicker on my HUD and suddenly I jumped up in the air, stabbing my sword right into its helmet, causing it to fall down with a thundering boom. I continued to slice at the armor until it swatted me aside, landing me next to Weiss. As I stood up to prepare for another assault, Santa's voice filled my head, saying out of the blue, "7…6…5…4…3…"

It was only then that I realized the bomb was still counting down until detonation. An explosion caused the armor to stagger, preventing it to continue attacking just as Santa finished the countdown. The heat must have stirred something in Weiss as she suddenly stood up. A bloody mark was left on her left eye, and a noticeable scar was deep in the middle of the wound. She stumbled a little as she stood up, pointing her rapier at the armor. She then started fidgeting with her rapier, and hearing a sound similar to a revolver chamber clicking, I turned my head to see something that actually looked like a revolver chamber. It had many colors on it, but the majority of it was grey. She spun the chamber until a red part lined up with the sharp side of her weapon, creating a red glow around it. Perhaps this was the physical form of the sorcery she used to make her symbols? I shook my head as I saw the armor charge towards us. Weiss looked up and raised her sword, not budging as the thin rapier deflected the immense broadsword, causing the armor to stumble backwards. Her sword then started glowing blue as she motioned for me to get out of the way. She then spun around and stabbed her sword into the ground, causing a line of ice to shoot its way towards the armor. I suddenly jumped in the air and began slashing at the armor's helmet, not knowing how I was able to jump that far. The armor ignored my blows and slashed at Weiss, who hopped onto its blade as her blade began to glow green. She slashed at the armor's gauntlet, disarming it and causing its weapon to fall right behind her. The armor then used both of its gauntlets to throw me across the room into a pillar. Weakened, but not entirely exhausted, I stood up from the rubble and activated my sword. The armor had already begun running towards Weiss, who made a blue symbol appear at her feet, instead of the gold ones she previously conjured up. Weiss rolled aside as the armor tried to smash her in an attempt to kill her without its weapon, which had disintegrated shortly after the armor was disarmed. Weiss pointed at the armor, with a blue symbol appearing in front of her hand, and the symbol she previously placed was now underneath the armor. It then turned black, launching the armor into the air for a moment. I used my speed boost to run straight for the armor, jumping towards it and slashing at it in midair before landing right behind it. I suddenly jumped up and landed on the ceiling of the castle, with my gravity boots holding me in place. I saw Weiss create six snowflake symbols, much smaller than her other ones, and use them to create lines that hit the armor's head, waist, arms, and legs, holding it in midair. She proceeded to use a gold symbol to launch her in the air. Eying the armor, she noticed the torso was cracked, thanks to the C4 explosive. As she created another symbol that would most likely launch her straight towards the damaged area of the armor, her sword suddenly turned white as she probably charged up her sword to hit the armor with full force. I then took the situation as an opportunity to kill this thing with style, showing her that I should be a threat to her just as the armor was. We both launched downwards, me slicing the armor in half and Weiss stabbing straight through its chest, causing it to disintegrate into white energy. I just kneeled there for a couple seconds, taking in the intensity of the fight, finally standing up once the energy had dissipated.

I turned around to see Weiss shaking her head. "You know, even though this world is different from yours, what made you think that mere sniper rifle rounds would help you kill this thing? There goes one clip of your precious ammunition."

Santa appeared in front of me and defended me, saying, "Maybe if we had the sorcery you performed while slaying the beast, we would still have all our ammunition in the first place." Speaking of which, I began to grow cautious of her, feeling uncomfortable with her display of efficiency in combat. Even without her magical powers she was still able to handle the armor pretty well. I would have to remind myself not to get on her bad side.

Wait. What am I doing? Scared of a little girl? I'm a true warrior! I have truly become a soldier working for the greater good! So what if there are so many things that can kill me in this world? They haven't killed me yet. They are not going to kill me anytime soon. Nothing is going to stop me from ever redeeming myself.

"Sorcery? You people really don't know anything about this world. Which is why we need to get to that one person who can help you as quick as possible. You will die in this world witho-" Weiss said before I interrupted her.

"Die? Granted, I do not know much about this world, but I'm not going to die anytime soon. You have not been through true war, have you? Your stamina is easily drained; you can't even walk a couple miles without being tired. I have years of experience of real battle, where people die and don't walk away without at least a bullet wound. I've been shot at, stabbed, cut, tormented, broken down, and frozen in the middle of a gunfight more times than you can imagine. If you think that I'm going to die, it will take a lot more than a bunch of magic, hell beasts, and a sword to do the job." I made sure that I made my point: that I was someone that she had to watch out for and was equally, if not more, dangerous than her.

Weiss immediately retaliated, yelling, "You act so tough, yet all you do is protect yourself with metal plating and use feeble ammunition and guns. You may think you're a true soldier, but you know nothing about fighting. You are nothing but a suit of armor and a gun! So if I tell you what to do, you better follow it, because it may very well save your life!"

"I do not need to follow your orders." I said coldly. "Why should I? You are nothing but a child who knows nothing about battle. When it comes to the point where you see people die, you will want to run away from it all. Your friends, your family, everyone you know, the time will come when you hear their screams. By then you will be frozen in shock. When you are ordered to pull the trigger you won't do it. You asked me if I had killed a human before. I have. It was not because I had no choice. No, I killed when I wanted to. So you better shut your mouth and be glad that I didn't kill you the first time we met." All of my anger was forced into my dark little speech.

Weiss stood there shocked, with a look of horror on her face. It really hit her hard. A bit too hard it seemed as she turned around, running to her pack, shaking as she sat down. Santa's voice in my helmet advised, " _Her emotional state has calmed down, but she is in shock. She will collapse in a few moments and when she wakes, you should be there to comfort her. For a true warrior seeking redemption, you became the monster you were once before. Redemption doesn't start out with a big journey. It starts with the little things in life. Such as this. If you really want to redeem yourself, take care of her. If she no longer wants you around, then leave."_

It was funny. The AI was chastising me. However his words were true. For a moment, I had become the monster, not the true warrior. I need to make my way back to being that true warrior once more, and solve the problem. As Santa predicted, Weiss collapsed on her pack. I sighed and gently put the backpack on her back, careful not to let anything spill. I then holstered all of my weapons and slung her over my shoulder, preparing to leave the area as soon as possible. I followed the dirt path, walking a couple miles, and before long it was morning. I had stopped on a hill that overlooked the path to get some rest, laying the still unconscious Weiss beside a nearby tree. Looking out into the sunrise, I spotted a house about 2 miles away. Taking out my sniper rifle, I zoomed in and saw a lady sitting on her porch, as if she was waiting for something to happen. Zooming out, I lowered my rifle and walked back to the tree. As soon as I sat down beside Weiss, she began to stir, squinting as the sun's rays hit her face. She turned her head to see me, and immediately her eyes began to widen. I hushed her, trying to calm her down, and she quickly looked away from me. I sighed and immediately looked down at my armor, which looked really beat up. I knew what I had to do, but how exactly would I do it? Only one way to find out…

"Weiss, I'm sorry." Shocked, Weiss suddenly turned towards me as I continued. "For everything. I have come to realize that the world that I've been through may not be as bad as the pain you have gone through. I seriously doubt it…" I began to say, switching my thought as Weiss began to glare at me, "…but it is a possibility. I don't know what you have gone through in life, and I thought you were just some teen girl who couldn't take care of herself. I see now that is not the case. I've been through a lot of trauma recently and what you said about being a suit of armor and a gun has been told to me before. I just break down whenever I hear it because that's not what I am. Henceforth, I apologize for releasing my anger out on you."

Weiss looked away for a moment, probably taking in my words, and turned her head back towards me. "Locus, when I first met you, you were almost dead at the front gates of the kingdom. I thought that you were just a brute, and assumed you had the same personality as one. You know what I mean? But now, as I got to know you a little bit, I can see you're not the kind of guy who wants to be the perfect soldier, but a person who cares about the well-being of others. I was displaying prejudice and _I_ am the one who's sorry." She turned towards the direction of the house with the woman in it. "I have to admit, you did a pretty good job finding her by yourself. How did you know that was where we were headed?" she asked curiously.

I gave the only reply I could. "I didn't."

"I forgive you." We both said in unison. Weiss, taken aback by the synchronized statement, suddenly had a mischievous look. She then began to run towards the house, yelling "I said it first! I win!"

So this was the game she wanted to play. I ran after her, attempting to catch up to her as we ran downhill. We kept yelling back at each other until we were within 5 feet of the house. Weiss, out of breath, managed to get a few words in between her gasps for air.

"Go ahead a-and ask her. She knows e-everything you need to know. I'm just…I'm just gonna rest a bit. Go on!" she said, shooing me away with her hand before lying down on the side of the house. Suspicious, I walked up to the lady as she opened her eyes to see me. The look on her face was not one of fear, but one of annoyance. She groaned, and I knew she didn't expect visitors.

"What do you want? Are you another one of those Atlas folks who want to take me into the loony bin? I already told you pawns that I would only talk to the one who knows nothing about this world, yet is a soldier much superior to your meek robots." She asked with an annoyed tone, raising her voice as she continued talking.

I interrupted her, saying, "Then I must be the one you're seeking. Funny, I was seeking you also."

The lady looked at me and her eyes widened. "I should have known. Those military folks don't know how to make armor that complex. Miss Schnee called me and asked if I could tell you about the world. What do you wish to know?"

To which I replied, "What legends do you have to tell me?"

The lady sighed and began to speak her mind. "Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts, of a forgotten past. Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness — creatures of destruction — the creatures of Grimm - set their sights on man and all of his creations. These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence to the void. However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named "Dust". Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life." She paused, her tone becoming graver. "But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone... darkness will return." She went quiet for a moment, until sharply saying, "That's all you need to know to survive. To adapt, you will have to find that out yourself. Now leave."

Unfortunate, yet resourceful. However, it made me realize that the woman was right. To survive, basic knowledge was needed, but to adapt, you would need to use that basic knowledge and apply it to different situations. However, the knowledge given to me was vague, but enough to get me going on my own. That being said, to survive, I would need better weapons than what I had on my person. Even some better ammunition would be helpful. And I knew exactly who could help me with my predicament.

"Oh come on! You want me to do what?!" yelled Weiss as I restated my inquiry a couple feet away from the house.

"I need some help with my armor and my weapons. I would like to get better ones."

"But we walked all the way here! AND my concert is in two days! Besides, you'll need a job to get the money to be able to upgrade you-" Weiss stopped. She then frowned and began to speak again. "You want me to help you get a job, don't you?"

To her dismay, I nodded, causing her to sigh in disbelief. "Well, with you being new to this place and all, I suppose I can get my father to hire you. You'd make an excellent bodyguard." She said with disappointment.

* * *

 **Weiss' POV**

Locus can be a scary guy. I know I said that he wasn't intimidating, but he could be scarier than any Grimm that I ever have met. Now it was time to see who was scarier, him or my father. I wonder what it would be like for the two of them to meet. Two people who are harsh and cold, yet Locus seems to be a more caring figure. I can't just leave him out there to fend for himself! I mean, even though he's pretty much the perfect weapon, he still has no capabilities whatsoever to fight the creatures of Grimm, or any other enemies. No matter how tough his enemies were in whatever unknown he came from, here on Remnant, there are dangers that he hasn't even seen yet. Sure, he beat a ton of Beowolves and two Ursai by himself, but that's barely even a fraction of what Remnant has in store for him. He does seem to make a good guard. Maybe he can be a police officer, or another military bravado…

I have an idea. Thank you concert for your convenience.

* * *

 **Locus' POV**

Weiss looked down for a moment, and suddenly looked back up, exclaiming, "That's it! You would make THE perfect bodyguard! The thought of my concert coming up made me realize that you could replace one of the other guards there!"

I thought about it, realizing that it would take at least two days to reach the concert hall from here. If we leave immediately…

"If we leave immediately, we should be able to reach the White Castle within two days. Now it's-" Weiss suddenly began announcing, as if reading my mind.

"Just a matter of calling your father." I interrupted, knowing what she would say. "Can you use your scroll to call him in anyway?"

Weiss immediately went into her pack, searching for her electronic device. With a grunt, Weiss took her scroll out and immediately contacted her father. The scroll was set to handheld, forcing me to take off my helmet to talk clearly. The scroll rang and suddenly a woman spoke up.

"Thank you for calling the Atlas- Oh! Miss Schnee! Good afternoon! Would you like me to patch you through to your father?" the lady one the phone said with surprise.

"Actually, yes please. I think I found just the man he was looking for." Weiss said with a smirk.

"What do you mean? Your father wasn't expecting a replacement until next week!" the woman said with even more surprise.

"Well, he's not actually from this world… I think that it's something I need to explain to my father, not to you right now." Weiss continued to talk. I nudged her and pointed at the road, gesturing for her to walk as she talks. She nodded, picked up her backpack and walked down the road. She continued talking to the secretary for a while until she finally got her father on the line. She then began explaining my unfortunate situation and how I helped her fight off the giant armor in the White Castle. She purposely left out the part where we argued, and said that I would make an excellent bodyguard for her. It was at that moment that Mr. Schnee wanted to speak to me. Weiss handed the scroll over to me and pressed it against my ear. I heard a distorted voice speak through the device, but it seemed as if Mr. Schnee was using a voice filter.

"Locus, is it? My daughter says that you would make the perfect bodyguard as you are already accompanying her to her concert. She says that from the universe you came from you were a soldier. Tell me, why not become a soldier here at Atlas?" Mr. Schnee asked.

I gave the most logical reply I could think of. "I had no idea Atlas existed, and if I did, I still have no idea where Atlas is. Even if I knew, I am assuming that where I am is far away from your city of Atlas due to the distortion I am receiving on this end. I'm in a city known as Vale, and getting to Atlas will be tougher for me than anyone else."

Mr. Schnee stayed quiet on his end, intently listening to my point. Once I was finished, he asked me a favor. "I would gladly have you as her personal bodyguard on the condition that you first oversee the safety of a shipment of Dust heading that way by train through an area called Forever Falls, and on the condition that you help her as best as you can. She will be attending a school called Beacon Academy, and I expect that you help guide her in a way that I cannot. Understood?"

"Of course. Thank you for everything, Mr. Schnee." I answered, immediately hanging up. When I looked around, I realized that we were five minutes away from the White Castle. Weiss held her hand out, expecting me to give her back the scroll. I instead high-fived her and tapped some random buttons on her scroll, annoying her in a playful way. She then took my sword off of my leg and began fiddling with it, prompting a trade between the both of us. This went on for a while until we stopped at the entrance of the concert hall. Hundreds of people were sitting in the audience, and multiple guards stood watch over and around the place. Two of said guards marched up towards me, aimed their weapons at me, yelling, "FREEZE!"

Santa's voice filled my head, saying, _"I have this under control. Do not worry."_ The AI then projected a holographic image of it, surprising the guards, instinctively shooting me in the head. Lucky for me, Santa had activated my overshields, so the bullets were hardly felt. "Relax, dear humans, for my user is the personal bodyguard of Weiss Schnee. I can pull up records and a contract directly from Mr. Schnee himself, if you wish. Now if you could please lower your weapons, that would be great. " Santa calmly said. The two guards lowered their guns, looked at each other, and shrugged.

Turning back to Santa, one of the guards said, "If that's the truth, then you guys can enter. Just, uh… You might want to look less… intimidating. Our apologies for shooting you." The other guard nodded in agreement. My helmet itself WAS pretty disturbing, but the rest of my armor was fine.

"Apology accepted, however, I don't see the problem with the way I look. However, if you really want me to, then fine." I said activating my camo module and walking off towards one of the balcony spots they had in the hall. The crowd was busy shuffling around, looking for their assigned seats. I activated the 3D map once more, showing where everyone with a weapon or a potentially dangerous piece of technology was. I marked Weiss, who was backstage, as the VIP target that I had to protect, and immediately begun looking around for any hostile activity. All of a sudden, the map shut off and a voice filled my head.

" _Do not worry, true warrior. You've done enough to help the poor girl already. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. I'll take care of the over watch duty."_ Santa reassured me. I deactivated my camo module and took a seat, watching as Weiss prepared for her concert.

Around twenty minutes later, the announcer's voice filled the air. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Weiss Schnee." The audience applauded at her entrance, and a slow piano intro filled the room. Weiss closed her eyes and began to sing.

" _ **Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all?"**_

The strings began to speed up as Weiss continued singing.

" _ **Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all?**_

 _ **Mirror, what's inside me? Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?"**_

The piano began to play dramatically as Weiss halted her singing for a moment. The lights suddenly went out, which alerted Santa, causing my 3D map to activate and search for Weiss. Luckily, the lights turning off was part of the show, however it would have been nice if someone told me. That's when I realized they were using the moonlight from above to light up the concert hall. Intriguing. Weiss began to sing again at a higher tone, changing her high singing into words after the piano began to play another dramatic tune.

" _ **Mirror mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see.**_

 _ **I can keep it from the world. Why won't you let me hide from me?**_

 _ **Mirror mirror**_

 _ **Tell me something**_

 _ **Who's the loneliest of all?"**_

Weiss raised her arms while extending the last syllable for a while, before singing at a softer tone this time to say her last line.

" _ **I'm the loneliest of all."**_

 _Not anymore Weiss,_ I thought to myself. _Not anymore._

* * *

 **A/N: Finished the 3rd chapter today. And since I took so long I made this chapter twice as long as the others. Probably going to keep it that way for the rest of the story.**

 **Anyways, for sneak peeks ot the next chapter, check my forum at** **topic/184972/142184200/1/Sneak-Peeks**

 **Enjoy.**

 **Edit: I have changed the scene after Locus and Weiss fight the armor as to make him colder and more in character. Thank you King Hoborg, Guest, and Writen for the feedback. Do not worry, chapter 4 will be more so on the personal side of Locus. And just for Guest, you'll see why the secretary and Mr. Schnee were like that soon. But as I always say, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there."**


End file.
